City factsheet

Dundee

How is the Dundee economy performing, and what are the key policy issues facing the city?

Dundee map

This factsheet compares Dundee to the five most similar European cities in terms of size and industrial structure. These are: Odense (Denmark), Val de France (Sarcelles) (France), Metz (France), Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Spain) and Poitiers (France).

Comparing cities in this way helps us to understand more about how well UK cities are competing on an international scale because it groups cities with similar industrial structures, rather than on their resulting economic performance. The factsheet also compares the relative strengths and weaknesses of Dundee to its European counterparts on variables such as skills, employment and productivity.

City group characteristics

Dundee is a small city with a fairly large public sector and small manufacturing and business service sectors.

Population

Industrial structure

Key

  • Manufacturing, mining and utilities 2011
  • Business services 2011
  • Public services 2011
  • Other private services 2011
  • Other sectors 2011

Industrial Structure chart

Overall economic performance

Dundee performs well in its group for employment rate but has one of the highest proportions of low skilled people in all the European cities studied. While it appears towards the bottom of the table with the cities in its group, in some cases such as high skills and patents, there is some variation between it and the lowest performing city.

Note: For more about this data please see the indicator index.